Jagannath Temple of Bangladesh | Ratna Mandir
Jagannath Temple, located in Comilla in the eastern part of Bangladesh, is a famous ancient temple. According to history, Ratnamanikya II, the then Maharaja of Tripura domain, started the construction of this temple in the late seventeenth century CE. And later Maharaja Krishnakishor completed the construction of the temple.
The octagonal architectural plan of the temple is gradually narrowed up in several steps. It has an ornamentation of lotus petals and pitchers on the central finial. Some archaeologists have noted that the temple’s top architecture was influenced by European church architecture. Although it appears to have three floors from the outside, the temple actually has a total of five floors inside.
This Jagannath temple is known as Satararatna temple to some archaeologists. It is also known that this temple is named Sateroratna temple due to its seventeen peaks. That is, according to the type of temple architecture, each peak at the top of the temple is called a ratna (it means jewel). Although this temple has seventeen ratnas, most of the ratna have been destroyed by the passage of time. Most of the ratnas of this temple were probably destroyed by the earthquake of 8.4 magnitude in 1878 CE.
At present, there is a large ratna (jewel) shaped almost conical on the center of the top of the temple. There are 4 ratnas relatively medium size (charchala or four roofs shaped?) as one ratna on each of the four arms and 8 ratnas relatively smaller size (dochala or two roofs shaped) as two ratnas on each of other four arms of the total eight arms surrounding of the center ratna are seen. Thus the number of ratnas in this temple stands at 13. And the temple may be called Teroratna (thirteenth jewel) temple (?).
Sateroratna Temple, a wonderful example of temple architecture, is located in Krishnapur village in Adarsha Sadar Upazila of Comilla District in Bangladesh. This ancient temple may be seen in front of the Jagannath house about three kilometers east of Comilla Town Hall. The temple is locally known as Jagannath Temple. Temples with this type of architectural design are very rare in Bangladesh. [Md. Shahin Alam]
Jagannath Temple History, Bangladesh
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